For Lack of Better Words: A Nuts and Dolts One-Shot
by EldritchGeneral
Summary: A short and sweet piece following Penny's thought processes, and how the world just melts away a little when she's with Ruby.


Penny Polendina was an android.

A gynoid, to be specific! She liked using new words that she had learned, not out of any know-it-all-ness or haughty personality flaw, but simply because every new thing she found filled her with a great sense of wonder.

Sitting on a park bench in the middle of the warm summer day, waiting on her friend, she darted her brilliant-green eyes around at everything that passed by, every animal, every human, every faunus. Up on the roof of a building she saw a pigeon land, a moment afterwards another one landed right behind it. She wondered if they mated for life like she had read most birds do.

She stared at a woman with a strange haircut that seemed to tower on an on above her head, Penny thought it looked pretty, and smiled warmly at the woman, but she didn't seem to notice. In the midst of wondering what the strange haircut was called, a familiar, cheery voice called out.

"Hey Penny!" Ruby said, she was dressed in her regular attire, and as always, Penny couldn't find any words to describe how she looked. Radiant? No, too calm. Beautiful? No, too simple.

"Sal-u-tations, Ruby!" Penny said, standing up in a springy motion from the bench, a joyous and blindingly beautiful smile growing across her face. She didn't know why she smiled when she saw Ruby, she smiled when she saw other people, but with Ruby, there was something a bit more to it, beyond her knowledge, "Oh, Ruby! What is that woman's hairstyle called?" she said, pointing to the woman with the strange haircut, who was now some 60 yards away.

"Huh? Oh, that's a beehive." Ruby said, after turning to look at the woman.

"Does she work at an apiary?" Penny asked.

"Nah," Ruby smiled, "She just has cool taste in hair."

"Alright, so, shall we go?" Penny asked, offering her hand.

"Yeah, sure! We've got a full day ahead of us, better get started," Ruby said, taking Penny's hand.

There was always that tiny jolt in Ruby's hand whenever she took Penny's hand in her grip. Penny was, after all, a gynoid, and she was a little bit cold on the fringes. Penny liked the jolt, and she couldn't explain to herself why.

The day was filled with going to a museum, watching a play at a theatre, and finally, an amusement park. But as the day went on, Ruby's energy began to run low, mainly from trying to keep her girlfriend's mechanical nature from being discovered. They retired to a bench in the amusement park, just so Ruby could catch a breather, of course.

"Ruby? Friend?" Penny said, nudging Ruby slightly on her shoulder, but she received no response other than a slight grumble that made Penny feel... something, a feeling she felt when saw a kitten, or a puppy, or at times, a baby beowulf. She didn't know why, but she didn't want to wake Ruby up.

She picked Ruby up in a princess-carry, as she had seen in some books she read from Ruby's room, and started carrying her back to Beacon. It was a long walk, to be sure, but then again, Penny didn't mind. That, at least, she was sure of. She also reasoned that it didn't hurt having Ruby's head near where her heart would be, their auras intermingling.

They were already on campus by the time Ruby stirred awake, Penny, again, reminded of puppies and kittens and baby beowulfs.

"Hello sleepyhead!" Penny said.

"P-Penny!" Ruby said, embarrassed, darting her eyes around, realizing she was at Beacon, "I'm..." she looked sad, which made Penny feel awful, "I'm sorry, I made you miss the light show they were gonna put on..." Ruby thought for a moment, "Uh, w-we could play video games, o-or go find the guys and get a slumber party started! O-or how 'bout we-"

"Oh, anything's fine as long as I get to be with you," Penny said, leaning her head down to Ruby's so their foreheads touched. Penny raised an eyebrow, "Ruby, why is your forehead hot, do you have a fever?"

"No! No! Just! Just dying from embarrassment and cuteness!"

"Can you actually die from that? There's still so much about you I don't know..." Penny said, feeling strangely happy.


End file.
